Cumulonimbus clouds, Definitions, Stupendous storms, Sunsets, The weather ahead

Rainbow? Or, after THAT storm, was it the “‘Arc’ of the Convenant”?

What an amazing, Biblical sight1 that came across the Catalina Mountains yesterday evening, that shaft of intense rain and attendant rainbow!  After a day where it looked like rain might not happen here, those earlier Cumulus clouds being pretty lazy really, this behemoth powered across Tucson and the Catalina Mountains dropping 0.56 inches in momentarily blinding rain blown on 60-70 mph gusts, with numerous cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, taking down power lines, and causing a 6 h plus power outage in Catalina.  0.51 inches fell here in 10 minutes!

Oops, forgot to remind you:  Don’t forget to go to the movies.  Shows the backside of what hit us just as the day ends.

How great this rain will be, too,  for our stressed desert-thornscrub vegetation after almost a week of dry conditions. (Only 0.17 inches at Sutherland Heights, though.)

For me, yesterday evening produced the most dramatic sights I’ve seen here in four years in Catalina.  I hope you caught it, but if you didn’t, here are a few of the most dramatic ones.  The first, penultimate shot was from the front porch about three minutes before bedlam hit Sutherland Heights.  Below this, those shots leading up to it.

7:04 PM. The Arc! Woulda been outside, gotten a better shot, but just there was a cloud-to-ground strike about 100 yards away a little before this “whilst” I was being a dummy outside grabbing the shots below.
6:34 PM. Storm hitting Tucson. TEEVEE weather presenters very excited. Its heading this way, but will it survive passage over the Catalinas?  A successful passage will require the renewal by new rising turrets.
6:50 PM. Looks like it will make it over the Catalinas.  Note cloud base AHEAD of the rain shafts.  This is looking pretty darn spectacular with the sun going down.
6:54 PM. 100 photos later, “executive override brain function” for controlling impulsive actions failing. Taking too many photos; agog at what I am seeing.  New cloud base holding up.
6:58 PM. “Whoa, Nelly”, as Keith Jackson might say.  An astounding sight; doesn’t look real.  But note clearing just behind shaft. So its not a wide storm at all.  Maybe it will miss us, as they have done lately. The “Arc” is just developing at left of the shaft.  More importantly, the base now overhead has held up and promises a new dump will emerge.  Each of these shafts only lasts a few minutes, and so you have new ones if you are going to get ROYALLY shafted (to use terminology appropriate for Olympics now in progress in Her Royal Majesty’s Britain).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A repeat of yesterday today?  Not bloody likely.

Oh, well, any rain will be great, but drier air is moving in.  Check it out here from the University of Washington Huskies’ (some former of whom, if that is correct english which I doubt, are in the Olympics, for example, women’s volleyball, but not in beach volleyball which I seem to be watching a lot of) Weather Department here.

Note the drier air moving in from New Mexico and west Texas in this loop.   Just the same, it can still rain here some because while drier, it’s not dessicated air and so the usual isolated Cb should be around.  So, keep watching,  keep cameras ready and charged.

The End.

 

————————————————————————————————————————————————————-1Biblical allusion is to the “ARK of the Covenant” whose activity was demonstrated in a movie with Harrison Ford some years.